Terminology Matters: Changing ‘Cybersecurity’ to Data Care – Ron Gula, Cyndi Gula – CSP #143

Since 2017, GTA has invested in dozens of cyber start-ups and funds and supported multiple cyber nonprofits and projects. Ron has served on the Board of Directors for a number of GTA’s portfolio companies and has been a steadfast mentor and advisor to many founders. Ron has also supported a variety of cyber nonprofits and think tanks, with both his substantive expertise and through philanthropic funding.

From 2002 to 2016, Ron was the co-founder and CEO of Tenable Network Security. Under Ron’s leadership, Tenable grew to 20,000 customers, raised $300m in venture capital, and grew revenues to $100 million annually; this positioned the company for a successful IPO in 2018, where it was valued at $3 billion.

Prior to founding Tenable, Ron was a cyber industry pioneer. Ron developed Dragon, one of the first commercial network intrusion detection systems, and he also ran risk mitigation for one of the first cloud companies. While serving as a US Air Force officer, Ron deployed network honeypots in the mid 90s for the US Defense Department (DOD) and served as a penetration tester at the National Security Agency (NSA), participating in some of the nation’s first cyber exercises.

For these efforts, Ron received in 2020 both the Northern Virginia Technology Council Cyber Investor of the Year award and the Baltimore Business Journal Power 10 CEO award.

Cyndi is a Managing Partner at Gula Tech Adventures which focuses on cyber technology, cyber policy and recruiting more people to the cyber workforce by rebranding the industry to Data Care. Since 2017, GTA has invested in dozens of cyber start-ups and funds and supported multiple cyber nonprofits and projects. Cyndi is a cyber start-up operations expert. She has started and run licensing, human resources, legal, facilities, accounting, marketing, channel, support and sales operations for both Tenable Network Security, which went public on the NASDAQ in 2018, and Network Security Wizards, where she was President and helped it grow to a successful exit 18 months after being founded. As a Gula Tech Adventures Managing Partner, she is helping our cyber start-ups scale and make important decisions about their organizational structure, facilities, product licensing, customer support, recruiting strategy, culture, managing their cash flow and having the processes in place to succeed and have fun. Cyndi is Chair of the Howard County Economic Development Authority Board, a 2016 LP graduate of Leadership Howard County, Board Member of Howard County Conservancy, and serves on the Board of Trustees of Howard County General Hospital. She has a Bachelor of Science in Glass Engineering from Alfred University.